It’s 3am here in London and I’ve been listening to Joey Badass and Lupe’s new albums all night, which are completely reinvigorating my feelings towards contemporary hip-hop. Honestly, outside of some of the best, I feel like hip-hop’s been a bit stale the past few years. Well both of these projects and both of these artists are absolutely KILLING it right now and restoring my faith. This legit, off the top freestyle from Lupe is a great example of what I’m talking about. Cop Tetsuo & Youth in stores now and enjoy!

Logic murders the “5 Fingers of Death” on Sway In The Morning, first with a crazy written verse and then switching in to a fun, off the top freestyle.Seattle people: We’ll be giving out tickets for Logic’s 6/10 show at the Neptune on tonight’s SNSS. Tune in!

The homey Mistah F.A.B. stopped by SNSS this week and as is tradition with F.A.B., he blessed the mic with a crazy freestyle off the top of his head. He completely killed it, with all sorts of Seattle references for us: his cousin Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch and his 3 touchdowns in the Seahawks vs. 49ers game earlier that night, Richard Sherman vs. Skip Bayless, Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton, Tha Bizness, Macklemore, and more.

Props to F.A.B. for being one of the few MC’s brave enough to spit…and murder…a legit freestyle live on air with us. Some of your favorite MC’s have declined to rhyme live with us, and even those that do rarely do it off the top. No writtens here, just improvisational skill at it’s finest.

Similar to my favorite “freestyle” video of all time, Shad went in on the “Grammy Family” beat for about 7 minutes and absolutely murdered it. So many bars, so much knowledge. Best writer in the game, imo. Peep the lyrics here.

Honestly, the verse was ill, but Mack rocking that jacket on BET is all you need in life. And for all my label homies that hit me up about Mack pretty much every week, check the rhyme starting at 1:42. That should answer your questions…

New School Noise is the brainchild of my guy DJ Same and Le Fresh Perspective, who hope that the event can shine light on some of the younger MC’s in the Seattle area. The idea is pretty straightforward: fans will vote from a list of MC’s to decide who will perform at the showcase, which goes down August 19th at Neumos. In the build up, they’ll be releasing a few of these teaser videos showing cyphers with some of the artists looking for votes.

Up above, you can see Dave B, Sean Brooks, Rebel, and J’Von, while down below, you’ve got Warm Gun, TayWill, Key Nyata, A-Rawlo, and Antbeezy.

Since Same has been helping out with Sound Session, we’re helping out with this program and co-signing it. I think I may be hosting the event at Neumos too, but we’ll have more official news released on Le Fresh’s site, Neumos’ site, and TAOD as we get closer.

This clip of Shad talking to kids at a middle school in Surrey, BC exemplifies why he’s one of my favorite MC’s. It’s one thing to be an incredibly talented rapper and musician, but when combined with intelligence and the realization that you have an obligation to help make the world a better place, it takes it to the next level. I wish more MC’s were as forward thinking and intelligent as Shad, so they could speak to our youth as well. As it stands now, there are probably less than 20 MC’s around that I’d encourage they go speak to kids. And that’s horrifying.

Like any sane individual, I didn’t watch the BET Awards and I knew that anything worth seeing would pop up online later. Sure enough, the video that had Twitter going crazy and everyone professing their love for Eminem is here in all its explicit glory.

Em’s verse is bananas and it’s funny to hear him rhyme over East Flatbush Project’s “Tried By 12″ beat almost 15 years after he was killing the Rap Olympics over similar records, but like any moment that gets SO much hype…I just instinctively have a little bit of a “meh” reaction. Don’t get me wrong, every rapper here is dope and spits crazy, but there’s just so many bars upon bars upon bars upon bars for me. I would have spazzed about this in 2000, but now, it’s cool…plus, it’s a great look for lyrics to actually be highlighted on a network like BET.

Mac takes a lot of heat from hip-hop heads, mainly because his fan base is heavily comprised of young white kids. However, as his hype continues to build, he’s been winning over more and more cats, which is sure to continue when his upcoming mixtape with Jazzy Jeff drops. Plus, if he keeps making appearances like this, spitting a better, legitimate, off the dome freestyle at 2:25 than a TON of these underground lyrical miracle cats I know, he’ll be in great shape.